RECTW 07

♧

“Are you absolutely sure those kids didn’t hit our daughter? She didn’t just fall on her own? Really?”

“Why would I lie to you?”

“You can’t underestimate kids. They bully each other too!”

“Th-that’s true? But they said she suddenly started bleeding… now that I think about it, their faces did look a bit suspicious!”

“See? I told you! She was bullied, right? Princess! Tell your dad the truth! I don’t go easy on kids either!”

“Seo son-in-law. Is that something to be proud of right now?”

“But those kids… they were kind of different. Also really good-looking. Usually only ugly kids bully others. Why would good-looking kids do that?”

“Sook-young. Are you thinking before you speak?”

“Sweetheart! I handle my own wife’s discipline, so don’t interfere!”

“Honey~!”

I ignored the clueless pair of lovebirds and my exhausted youngest uncle, and kept thinking.

What… is going on?

Was talking about the future something I wasn’t even supposed to do?

There had been no warning in the status window. Even when I casually told my dad that my aunt would betray him in the future, nothing happened.

So I thought everything was fine…

Then what is allowed, and what isn’t?

Does that mean I can’t say things like “IMF is coming, buy dollars now,” or “this stock will skyrocket later”?

Can I not even buy dollars in advance? Do I just have to ignore the dot-com bubble in 2000?

Then how am I supposed to make 1 trillion won?!

Am I supposed to go back to being a 30-year-old brain-dead accident victim version of Seo Sing-a?!

“NO!!!”

“Gah! Honey, what’s wrong with her?!”

“Look at you two. Of course she’s screaming.”

“Mom, Dad, Uncle! Don’t worry! I’m going to live a long life! I’ll live to be 100!”

“Sweetheart… you just had a nosebleed. Nobody thinks you’re dying young!”

“…I’m heading home. Ahh… I’m exhausted.”

“Brother-in-law, take care. It’s cold in the parking lot. No need to see you out.”

“Didn’t expect it anyway.”

If what I needed was information and all I had was my body, then what choice did I have?

I would just have to charge forward.

Thus began my self-experimentation project using my own body…

In the winter of a six-year-old’s life, just before Christmas.

♧

“Pardon? She’s fine? That can’t be right. Doctor, please check again. Are you sure you looked properly? She gets nosebleeds all the time—sometimes five, even ten times a day!”

“It’s winter, and the air is very dry. This can happen in children.”

“No! Even with that frequency?”

“Hmm… it is frequent, but as you can see from the tests… she is actually healthier than most children her age. Her hemoglobin and platelets are normal. There is no connection to leukemia, which you were worried about.”

Mrs. Bang Suk-young, who had recently been tearing up watching The Last Leaf, looked utterly unconvinced.

She made a dramatic scene as if she might faint, but the doctor’s conclusion did not change.

In the end, my mother stormed out of the room holding my hand.

“Useless quacks! My tiny daughter is bleeding like this and they say she’s fine? How can the world be so cruel to us?”

“….”

That stings a little.

Sorry, Mom.

I couldn’t exactly tell her I was being penalized for leaking the secrets of fate.

After barely ten steps, my mother collapsed onto a hospital bench.

I gently patted her trembling hand.

“Mom. Did you buy dollars?”

“Sniff! Can you say that while your mother is crying?”

“Sorry… but you need to exchange them quickly. You did convert all 30 million won, right?”

“No. Forty million.”

I looked at her in surprise.

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and grumbled.

“Do you think your mom is stupid? Something felt off. The rate was 820 won last month, and now it’s already 850. I had a bad feeling, so I even converted my emergency savings without telling your dad. The bank kept asking questions too—ugh, I was so nervous. Did I do well?”

“Yes. You did great!”

Our Mrs. Bang Suk-young… her instincts weren’t bad at all.

The house she sold had been inherited from my late grandmother under my mother’s name, so in effect, she had converted everything into dollars.

That was a beastly level of instinct.

Well… in the original timeline, she had actually been quite competent, just a bit scatterbrained and overly trusting of her daughter.

She was not stupid.

Good.

I didn’t know the exact numbers, but since the IMF crisis would double the exchange rate…

Roughly speaking—

We’ll make about 80 million won.

Okay. Good!

That’s seed money to scoop up collapsing Korean stocks.

Why Korean stocks instead of U.S. ones?

Unless it was something obvious like Samsung or Hyundai, it would be strange for a six-year-old to insist on buying American companies like Apple.

People would think I was insane.

My parents knew better than anyone that I was not a genius or prodigy.

So until I wore a school uniform, I would stick to domestic investments.

“By the way, sweetie. Did Grandma really tell you in a dream to buy dollars?”

“Yes. Isn’t it amazing? Other families get lottery numbers from ancestors, but ours gives financial advice! My grandma is amazing! Super awesome!”

“…I see…”

“Mom still doesn’t believe me? I even predicted Auntie’s illness and cousin Jung-sook’s baby’s name! Grandma told me all of that! Mom is doubting me again!”

“No, no. I never said you were lying. I’m sorry~”

Both the deceiver and the comforter were equally half-hearted.

My mother leaned back in the hospital chair, staring at the sky.

“Sigh… maybe I should go see a shaman instead of a doctor…”

“….”

Anyway.

The self-experiment was a success.

Confirmed results:

• Talking about personal fate or finances → OK
• Saying things like “someone will get sick,” “dollar will rise,” or “buy this stock” → OK
• Symptoms → minor nosebleeds, slight dizziness

But when the scale increased, things became dangerous.

When I tried saying “IMF will happen in 1997,” my nose started bleeding like rain and I lost all strength.

It seemed that when my words could significantly alter history or affect many people, I received a warning.

Still, it was manageable.

Then I tested bigger events—like 9/11 or tsunamis.

I blacked out before I could even finish speaking.

I woke up in an ambulance with my parents crying, having apparently vomited blood.

Doctors said nothing was physically wrong, but I could feel it.

Like my lifespan had slightly decreased.

Still, it was fine.

A single experiment is enough.

So the guidelines were set.

Now I knew clearly what I could and couldn’t say.

Though one thing still bothered me:

Why was it okay to mention my aunt’s cancer but not Rampa Lim’s accident?

Was it because celebrities are different?

In mid-December, Australia was on summer break.

Racing kart season was off, so I heard Rampa Lim would stay in Korea until January.

Because of that, I had met him a few more times through Jeong Hyeon-gyo, the only kid I knew nearby.

We’d gotten familiar… somewhat close.

And yet I couldn’t just let him die early.

As a human, I didn’t feel entirely comfortable about it.

But what could I do?

I couldn’t gamble with my own lifespan.

If anyone was to blame, it would be that Rampa Lim was born with too massive a fate—

“Hey? Isn’t that Rampah over there?”